The Human Right to Tell Our Own Stories (with Daniel Kwan and Dawn Nakagawa)

Daniel Kwan – the Oscar-winning co-director of Everything Everywhere All at Once – is a 21st-century filmmaker in the purest sense. He came up in the internet’s attention economy, making over-the-top viral videos that harnessed absurdity to cut through the noise. But as AI starts to generate its own strange media at scale, the surreal risks losing its charge in a world that already feels unreal. In this episode, Kwan argues that Hollywood is on the verge of industrializing imagination in the way we mass-produce food. If machines become the default authors of culture, we may end up awash in highly processed creativity – empty calories with an aftertaste of authenticity. To safeguard creativity in the age of AI, he co-founded the Creators Coalition on AI: a push for a new creative contract where the tools can change, but authorship stays human. Subscribe to the Berggruen Institute on YouTube to be the first to listen to new Futurology episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@Berggrueninst Catch up on the Futurology conversation with full episodes on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyYCSKWs8iYgjg-mhu-EuhTrG0-adrb0c Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/futurology/id1821718921 Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2I38HvHP6KlXrD5ysfygxk?si=XB2qyyGjT2ONMTd5XUKJAg&nd=1&dlsi=ac8cda6751834298 Mentioned in this Episode: Chromeo - When The Night Falls (feat. Solange Knowles) (Music Video, 2011) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkyYxAv6kB4 Turn Down for What — DJ Snake & Lil Jon / Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Music Video, 2014) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_Down_for_What So Sorry Man — The Lonely Island / Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert (Music Video, 2009) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lonely_Island#Digital_shorts_and_music_videos The Power of Myth — Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers (Book, 1988) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Myth The Selfish Gene — Richard Dawkins (Book, 1976) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Selfish_GeneWhere to find Dan Kwan: Website, The Daniels: https://www.danieldaniel.us/  X, Dan Kwan:  https://x.com/dunkwun  X, The Daniels: https://x.com/Daniels  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dunkwun Show ideas and feedback? Email: [email protected] Learn more about the Berggruen Institute  https://www.berggruen.org Follow Futurology! Instagram:   /futurologypod Twitter/X:   / futurologypod Facebook:   / berggrueninst   LinkedIn:   / berggrueninst   Bluesky: / futurologypod Credits  Executive Producers: Nicolas Berggruen, Nathan Gardels, Nils Gilman, Dawn Nakagawa, & Jason Hoch Producers: Grant Slater, Alex Gardels, & Nathalia Ramos Associate Producer: Elissa Mardiney Theme Music: Marcus Bagala Audio Engineer: Aaron Bastinelli & Kyle Scott Wilson Futurology is a production of Studio B and Wavland for the Berggruen Institute in Los Angeles, California.